A Cool Idea Has `Two' Hot A Price

Free Air Conditioners Duplicated For Some

August 18, 1998|By BRAD BENNETT Staff Writer

DELRAY BEACH — Taxpayers may foot the bill to install - then replace - new air conditioners in the city's public-housing complex - all within five months.

In what local and county officials are calling a potential repetition of efforts, poor people living in Carver Estates who have gone decades without air-conditioning may now receive new, wall-mounted air conditioners - twice.

The first units are being provided this summer as part of an emergency measure ordered by President Clinton to help sweltering low-income residents in the nation's hottest states.

The Delray Beach Housing Authority plans to replace those units with slightly bigger ones as soon as January.

``Definitely, it's a duplication,'' said Dorothy Ellington, executive director of the Delray authority. ``The positive part about it is that the folks will get air-conditioning this summer. We couldn't provide it this summer.''

This summer, poor people living in Palm Beach County - including those in the 200 units at Carver Estates - may be eligible for one air conditioner each out of Florida's share of $100 million in emergency cooling assistance.

Florida received $17 million, of which Palm Beach County has been allocated $691,000.

So far, at least six Carver Estates residents have been approved for new air conditioners - at a cost of $500 each - under the Clinton program. More applications are pending.

These residents could get a second air conditioner from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which local housing officials say is poised to grant $150,000 for new air conditioners in most apartments at the complex.

Under Clinton's program, residents would own the air conditioners, which would be mounted in walls. Because residents would own the appliances, they could take them away when they leave Carver Estates.

Under the HUD program, however, the wall-mounted units would stay at Carver Estates because the housing authority would own them.

``We would prefer our own units so that we don't go through this again,'' Ellington said.

She said the housing authority sought the HUD grant at least a month before Clinton made his announcement.

``Our plans had nothing to do with their plans,'' Ellington said.

Although HUD officials will not comment on the grant because it is still under consideration, they said the potential for a duplication will not affect their decision on the grant money, which could be available in the fall.

Officials with Palm Beach County Community Action Program, which is administering the Clinton money locally, said this is an emergency situation that cannot wait.

``Our thing is to solve the crisis now,'' said Clarice Scott, director of the county's Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. ``It's an emergency now. In this region, people are dying now because of the heat.''

The program has tradionally given assistance to poor people unable to pay heating or light bills but has been temporarily expanded to include free air conditioners and fans, plus the extra money to pay increased utility bills.

Scott said the energy assistance program will not take back units from Carver Estates residents who may get air conditioners through HUD.

But Scott said she will meet with other county and state officials today to decide whether to give out any more units to Carver Estates residents.

There is already far more demand than money for the program, and energy assistance staffers have been fielding twice as many calls as they normally do.

Ellington said the housing authority's air conditioners will be slightly more powerful than those distributed by the energy assistance program. HUD's units will put out 13,000 BTUs, while the energy program's units range from 5,500 to 12,000 BTUs, based on the size of each apartment.

But neither is powerful enough to cool more than a small, one-bedroom apartment or a few rooms in a larger apartment, said Mike Walker, president of Engineered Comfort Systems of Delray Beach.

It would take 24,000 BTUs to cool a 1,000-square foot apartment _ the size of a 4-bedroom unit at Carver Estates, Walker said.

``For 500 square feet, I would be putting about 12,000 BTUs'' into an apartment, Walker said.